Spontaneity
The impression that the Confucian philosophy is based on self-interest well understood, is erroneous. Its highest motive is spontaneity, love of right for its own sake, zeal for order, harmony, law, and growth.
"The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean, with gain. They who know truth are not equal to those who love it, nor they who love it to those who delight in it. I long to see one who loves virtue as he loves beauty. If one in the morning hear the right way, he may without regret die before night. Is virtue remote? I wish it, and it is at hand. The good man brings forth righteousness in humility, completes it in sincerity, and per- forms it according to right order." '
"What can be made of one who holds fast his virtue, without seek- ing to enlarge it? " "A man enlarges his principles, not they him. Leave not virtue without culture. Respect the promise of youth. 2 The plant may stop at the blade without flowering; at the flower with- out fruiting." "Your good careful people of the villages are the thieves of virtue. 1 " 3
Tsze-Tsze's picture of the ideal man is the crown of Con- fucian ethics : for dignity and insight nowhere surpassed. " He prefers concealing his virtue, while it daily grows more manifest to others. He knows how the distant is involved in the near, and how what is minute becomes manifest. He examines his heart, that there may be nothing wrong there. He is not to be equalled in work which other men cannot see. The Book of Odes says, 'Be free from shame in your secret chamber, where the light of Heaven looks in. Rever- ence appears in his quietness; truth in his silence. Without reward he urges men to virtue; without anger, he awes more than weapons of war.' " *
Such is man's relation to himself. Next comes his rela- Reiation tion to others. And here the ethical criterion of toothers. the Mongolian is like that of Kant, universal validity.
1 Lunyu, IV. 16; VI. 18; IX. 17; IV. 8; VII. 29; XV. 17. 2 Ibid., XIX. 2; XV. 28; VII. 3; IX. 22. " Maxima debeter reverentia puero." Juve- nal Sat., XIV. 47. 3 Ibid., IX 21; XVII. 13. This expression appears from Mencius (VII. PT. H. 37) to be applied to conventionally moral and routine-bound people, too inert to feel any impulse to progress. 4 Chung-yung, XXXIII.
